Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/14/20
  

  Archivist and bookseller plead guilty to pilfering $8M in rare texts from Carnegie Library

  One by one, rare books vanished from the library — the Journal of George Washington; a copy of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” valued at nearly $1 million; an Atlas by a 19th-century German explorer worth $1.2 million.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/16/20
  

  The chief justice who presided over the first presidential impeachment trial thought it was political spectacle

  As Trump’s trial gets set to begin, the spotlight is inevitably turning — just as it did with Johnson — to the chief justice of the United States, who must somehow preside over this very odd, kind-of-sort-of legal process of politicians sitting in judgment of the country’s commander in chief.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  1/14/20
  

  Hundreds of Britons Volunteered for a Diary-Keeping Project in 1937. They Left an Invaluable Record of World War II

  The hundreds of unpaid volunteers who participated filled out a series of questionnaires and made regular diary entries. They wrote about the intimate details of their lives as well as their thoughts and feelings about the world around them. 

• 
• SOURCE: PolitiFact
  1/14/20
  

  Fact check: After Pearl Harbor, Japanese didn't invade US because they feared armed citizens?

  Four experts told us there is no evidence that Japan ever seriously considered such an invasion and that military limitations, not Americans armed with hunting weapons, were the reasons why.

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  1/16/20
  

  How Political Divides Shape U.S. History Lessons

  Partisan politics are making their way into school textbooks, reports The New York Times. We dig into the report.

• 
• SOURCE: YouGov
  1/13/20
  

  What the Confederate flag means in America today

  New study reveals stark divides on how Americans think about the Confederate flag. 

• 
• SOURCE: History.com
  1/13/20
  

  'Broken Arrow': When the First U.S. Atomic Bomb Went Missing

  Since the demolition crew’s report was top secret, no word emerged about the whereabouts of the missing atomic bomb. Were there clues in the wreckage that the bomb had in fact been released prior to impact?

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/11/20
  

  Trump says Pelosi is worst House speaker in history. Twitter remembers Dennis Hastert.

  Disgraced former House speaker Dennis Hastert’s name was trending on Twitter Saturday morning after President Trump suggested “Nancy Pelosi will go down as the absolute worst Speaker of the House in U.S. History!”

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/11/20
  

  Invaders, allies, occupiers, guests: A brief history of U.S. military involvement in Iraq

  For the past 17 years, the United States has maintained a military presence in Iraq.

• 
• SOURCE: Business Insider
  1/7/20
  

  In 1980, a 34-year-old Donald Trump said the US should invade Iran in response to the hostage crisis

  According to historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman, as cited by Brookings, this was Trump's first known comment on US foreign policy. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/10/20
  

  We’re living in the bizarre world that Flaubert envisioned

  by Susanna Lee

  Many might feel bewildered and demoralized. But fans of the 19th-century French novel have seen this before.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  1/10/20
  

  The Iran Plane Crash Could Be the Latest in a Long History of Accidental Shoot-Downs

  Here’s what you need to know about some of the deadliest attacks on civilian aircraft.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/12/20
  

  Even for an air pollution historian, these past weeks have been a shock

  by Nancy Cushing

  City dwellers in southeast Australia have been forced to take a crash course in the finer points of air pollution. 

• 
• SOURCE: MPR News
  1/13/20
  

  A Beautiful World: Ancient texts reveal Aztecs’ history in their own words in Camilla Townsend's Latest Book

  Camilla Townsend’s new book, "Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs," documents the story of the Aztecs from an entirely new perspective, that of the Aztecs themselves.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/12/20
  

  Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories.

  American history textbooks can differ across the country, in ways that are shaded by partisan politics.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/13/20
  

  Why are there seven days in a week?

  by Kristin Heineman

  The Babylonians, who lived in modern-day Iraq, were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long. 

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  1/8/20
  

  Trying to Get in Shape in 2020? Here's the History Behind the Common New Year's Resolution

  While New Year’s resolutions in general are thought to date back to the ancient Babylonians, the New Year’s resolution to get in shape is part of a much more recent trend.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/8/20
  

  The Surprising History of McDonald’s and the Civil Rights Movement: Marcia Chatelain's Latest Book Reviewed

  In “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” Marcia Chatelain has written a smart and capacious history suggesting that McDonald’s should summon all of those thoughts, and then some.

• 
• SOURCE: HistoryExtra
  Accessed 1/9/20
  

  Understand the news with this brief history of Iran

  by Ali M Ansari

  From the US assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani to the ongoing case of the jailed mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Iran has scarcely been out of the headlines in recent months. But how far back does the history of Iran stretch?

• 
• SOURCE: Telegraph
  1/7/20
  

  British National Archives to trial 12-document limit per day for visitors, as academics warn research could be affected

  The National Archives claimed the move was designed to increase efficiency - but faced an immediate backlash from historians who complained their work could become untenable.